September 29, 2008

Out of 872 selected for primary and community centres, only 69 joined duty, says Health minister
Very few doctors had joined service in the rural areas in the last eight months despite the fact that such orders had been given to hundreds of doctors, Health and Family Welfare Minister Jay Narayan Vyas told the state Assembly on Saturday.

Out of a total 872 appointments of allopathic doctors between January 1 and August 31, 2008 for primary health and community centres in the rural areas, only 69 turned up to join their duties. Vyas said the rest did not even intimate about not joining their duties. Even doctors belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes did not show much interest in serving in the rural areas, he said.

He said out of the 52 SC doctors given appointments, only five turned up for duty. The corresponding figure was 13 out of 116 for ST candidates and 20 of 405 for general category candidates. He said it was not only allopathic doctors who had shown reluctance to serve in the rural areas. Out of the 238 homoeopathic doctors given appointments, only 98 came forward to join in the rural health centres. Only 457 of the 607 ayurvedic doctors appointed, joined their duties, he added.

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Resident Ophthalmologist at a Chennai based Eye Hospital group. Also co-founded Bhumi, one of India's largest and best youth volunteer Non-profits. Our volunteers are involved in supplementary education for under-privileged children across several states of India